The New Year brought a fresh, new Voter’s Guide to mailboxes across Oregon, with information (and plenty of opinions) about two tax measures on the January 26 ballot. On Monday we talked about Measure 66. On Thursday we turn to Measure 67.

Measure 67 would increase the corporate minimum tax in Oregon. For most businesses some C-corporations* this means a change from $10 to $150. Some corporations with over $500,000 in revenue here would pay a minimum tax of approximately 0.1 percent on their Oregon sales. The measure would also raise tax rates by 1.3 percentage points on profits over $250,000. By 2013, that increase would drop to 1 percent, and would only apply to profits over $10 million. (There are more details, of course! The Oregonian has handy calculators here.)

Some business owners take issue with the fact that the measure would be retroactive, meaning they would be taxed on last year’s sales, because they say they didn’t figure this into their already strained 2009 budgets. And businesses with high sales figures but potentially low profit margins (such as car dealerships and grocery stores) argue that it’s unfair to base a tax on their revenue because that number does not accurately represent their profitability.

Other business owners, who support the measure, say the new tax would not ultimately impact their bottom line. Some go further, saying a tax increase seems fair because a chunk of the money will go towards funding education, which they say is in their interest as employers looking to hire well-educated applicants.

How would new taxes on corporations affect you, or your business? How do you plan to vote, and why?